State Department of
Education
Instructional Strategies
Project
Glossary of Strategies
About This Document
The Instructional Strategies Project Glossary consists of brief descriptions of a
variety of strategies that foster student engagement and daily formative assessment of
learning. These strategies should move students toward the learning outcomes by
providing multiple opportunities for them to engage in discussions with peers to develop
talking and listening skills, read and write in a variety of situations, and investigate
relevant and meaningful concepts. This list is by no means all inclusive. Teachers are
encouraged to locate and use other strategies that are appropriate for their content and
meet their daily standards-based outcomes. It is also important to remember that
strategies can be modified to meet the needs of the learners. A
Internet links for strategies are provided at the end of this document.
Questions to Consider When Planning a Lesson
1. What standard am I teaching?
2. What are my daily measurable objectives for this standard?
3. What strategies will help me pace my lesson appropriately?
4. What strategies will require ALL (100%) of my students to engage in
content through reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating?
5. What actions will I take to assess throughout the lesson?
STRATEGY DESCRIPTIONS
Anticipation Guide
Purposes: (1) set purposes for reading texts (2) activate prior knowledge (3) help make
connections with the text
Procedure:
1. Analyze material to be read. Select major ideas with which students will interact.
2. Write the ideas in short, clear declarative statements with some of the statements
being true and some of the statements being false.
3. Put statements in a format that will elicit anticipation and prediction.
4. Discuss students’ anticipations and predictions before they read the text.
5. Students read the text to confirm or disconfirm their original responses. After reading,
students revisit their predictions and modify, if necessary.
Example:
Agree
Disagree
1. Bats use their ears to help them see
at night.
_____
_____
2. The mudskipper is a fish that can
climb a tree.
_____
_____
Exit Slips
Purpose: (1) reflect on content of lesson
The exit-slip strategy requires students to write responses to questions you pose at the
end of class. Exit slips help students reflect on what they have learned and express what
or how they are thinking about the new information. Exit slips easily incorporate writing
into your content area classroom and require students to think critically.
How to create them…
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At the end of your lesson or five minutes before the end of class, ask students to
respond to a prompt you pose to the class.
You may state the prompt orally to your students or project it visually.
You may want to distribute 3x5 cards for students to write their responses on or allow
students to write on loose-leaf paper.
As students leave your room, they should turn in their exit slips.
How to use them…
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Review the exit slips to determine how you may need to alter your instruction to better
meet the needs of all your students.
Collect the exit slips as a part of an assessment portfolio for each student.
ICE (Illustrate-Calculate/Connect-Explain)
Purposes: (1) provide a visual model of the concept students are learning about and (2) show
evidence of understanding through calculations or connections (3) promote student writing
about content
ICE is a math strategy that stands for Illustrate-Calculate-Explain. It can apply to all contents by
being adapted to Illustrate-CONNECT-Explain. The teacher may choose the format in which
students complete this strategy.
Graphic Organizers
Purposes: (1) provide a visual model of the structure of text and (2) provide a format
for organizing information and concepts
Procedure:
1. Introduce the graphic organizer to the students. Demonstrate how it works by reading
a piece of text and noting key concepts and ideas on the organizer.
2. Have groups of students practice using the graphic organizer with ideas from
independently read text. Share ideas with the class.
3. Choose an organizer that matches the text structure and thinking processes.
Jigsaw
Purposes: (1) engage with text (2) self-monitor comprehension (3) integrate new
information with prior knowledge (4) respond to text through discussion
Procedure:
1. Divide class into 4-6 member groups; each member becomes an expert on a different
topic/concept assigned by teacher.
2. Members of the teams with the same topic meet together in an expert group with a
variety of resource materials and texts available to explore their topic. Also, a single
reading from the textbook or another source could be used to complete the
assignment.
3. The students prepare how they will teach the information to others.
4. Everyone returns to their jigsaw (home) teams to teach what they learned
to the other members.
5. It may be helpful to supply each student with a graphic organizer for note taking
purposes.
6. Team members listen and take notes as their classmate teaches them.
Journal Responses
Purposes: (1) respond in writing to the texts they are reading and (2) provide
opportunities for reflection and critical thinking
Procedure:
1. Provide students with a journal or a system for keeping their responses.
2. Show students examples of good responses to text. Help students identify aspects of
thoughtful reading responses.
3. Read a portion of text out loud and share a thoughtful response. Discuss with
students why it was thoughtful and not shallow.
4. Read another portion of text aloud and have students write a thoughtful response.
Share in groups.
5. For independent reading, have students write the date and the title of the text or
chapter at the top of the page or in the left margin.
6. After reading a text, or listening to one, students use Journal Responses to respond
to what was read. Journal Responses can include reactions, questions, wonderings,
predictions, connections, or feelings.
7. Encourage students to share responses in groups or with the whole class.
Example:
Journal Response prompts:
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What was important in the chapter? How do you know?
What is something new you learned? Explain.
What connection(s) did you make? Explain.
K. I. M. (Key Ideas, Information, Memory Clues)
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Make a three column chart.
Write the term or key idea (K) in the left column, the information (I) that goes
along with it in the center column, and draw a picture of the idea, a memory clue,
(M) in the right column.
The key idea may be a new vocabulary word or a new concept. The information
may be a definition or it may be a more technical explanation of the concept. The
memory clue is a way for students to fully integrate the meaning of the key idea
into their memories. By making a simple sketch that explains the key idea,
students synthesize and interpret the new information, making it their own. Then,
students can reference their drawings to easily remember new key ideas.
Key Idea
Information
Memory Clue
Q-Chart
Purposes: (1) Provide a framework for teachers and students to create questions at
varying levels of difficulty (2) Help students use questions to extract meaning from text
A T-Chart designated for questioning is also sometimes called a Q-Chart. It is simply a
two column chart that poses questions from the text on the right side, and the left side
is blank for students to answer the questions and take notes from their reading.
Questions
Responses/Notes
Question Cards
Purposes: (1) Prompt the teacher to write questions before class (2) help the teacher
ensure question types vary (3) help the teacher ensure that ALL students are given the
opportunity to respond to varying levels of questions
The concept of Question Cards is for teachers to write questions on index cards or simply
make a list of questions to be asked during a lesson. Teachers may pre-assign questions
to certain students. In this case, the teacher would first pose the question to the entire
class, employ wait time for ALL students to formulate an answer, and then call on the
pre-assigned student to respond. The teacher may also ask that all students respond to
each question in writing before selected students respond orally.
Think-Pair-Share
Purposes: variety
1)
Think. The teacher provokes students' thinking with a question or prompt or
observation. The students should take a few moments (probably not minutes)
just to THINK about the question.
2)
Pair. Using designated partners, nearby neighbors, or a desk mate, students PAIR
up to talk about the answer each came up with. They compare their mental or
written notes and identify the answers they think are best, most convincing, or
most unique.
3)
Share. After students talk in pairs for a few moments (again, usually not
minutes), the teacher calls for pairs to SHARE their thinking with the rest of the
class. Sharing can be accomplished in a variety of ways: going around in roundrobin fashion, calling on each pair, taking answers as they are called out (or as
hands are raised), pairing with another pair. Often, the teacher or a designated
helper will record these responses on the board or on the overhead.
Internet Resources for Strategies
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http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/strategies.html
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http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/ReadStrats_20Best.html
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http://www.learningpt.org/literacy/adolescent/strategies.php
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http://www.adlit.org/strategy_library
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http://www.sw-georgia.resa.k12.ga.us/Math.html (math graphic organizers)
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http://www.edhelper.com/teachers/graphic_organizers.htm (graphic organizers)
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http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/index.htm
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http://www.readingquest.org/strat/
Reading Quest (Social Science site full of literacy strategies—for all content areas)
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http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/Pages/ContentStudyGds.htm
Literacy in the Content Areas: Study Guides & Vocabulary Activities
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http://www.teachersdomain.org/special/adlit/
These self-paced classroom activities are designed to enhance the literacy skills of
struggling readers in Grades 5–8. Each uses videos, interactive activities, note-taking,
reading, and writing. Free registration required.
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http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#
Visual Literacy: This is a "periodic table" of visual literacy. You can select related links
and view examples. This is a useful site to when you're designing graphic
organizers, with over fifty different visualization methods provided:
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www.educationoasis.com